The sometimes deafening alarm that precedes a flight of kayaks has now been explained. They hold a kind of democratic general meeting about when it is appropriate to lift.
Researchers have studied what happens when hundreds of quays are about to leave the night quarters in the trees at sunrise on cold winter mornings. Behind the crescendo of the sounds is a joint decision-making on how the flight should be coordinated for the benefit of the collective.
“By establishing consensus for leaving the sleeping area early and in large flocks, the birds reduce the risk of predators, facilitate foraging and increase the availability of mating partners,” the researchers write in the journal Current Biology, reports AFP.